Chapter 4: The Sand Sea
Maybe if she stared at the scalding sand beneath her paws long enough, it would magically turn into water and she wouldn't want to murder the sun.
The seemingly endless desert had turned to towering spires of rock formations, clumped tight together like a forest, but the group had not seen the shade of trees or any semblance of water in days, only stopping to rest once they were all close to dropping from the heat.
Leppria tucked her head between her legs, her stomach churning with hunger and her eyelids drooping from exhaustion, every ounce of energy she once had seeped away by the relentless sun. She didn't think she could walk another step.
Why was she here again?
"Do we even know where we're going?" she asked no one in particular.
Lion-O grunted, his voice somewhat hoarse from thirst but you could hardly tell, he'd been wearing the same exact scowl for five long days, seemingly unable to tire or waver, his anger just kept fueling him like oil to a flame.
"We're following the lizard army to Mumm-Ra." He said, entirely too casual.
Leppria had figured that was his plan based on what Cheetara had told her, but it was still hard to hear, like she'd stuck her entire head into an ice bath. So not only was everyone hot, tired, and starving, their king was leading them to death at the hands of the Thundercats' greatest enemy.
She tried to hold her tongue, she really did, but she also did not escape death by the skin of her claws just to walk right back into it.
"That's hardly a plan." She hissed under her breath.
Blue eyes stabbed deep into her head as a growl built in the king's throat, but Prince Tygra was quick to redirect him. "We've lost the trail anyway," he said, rubbing the back of his neck as Leppria took notice of the growing shadows beneath his eyes.
"And our supplies are dangerously low." The cheetah shook out her bag, completely empty save for a few grains of sand that tumbled out.
Lion-O shook more sand from his cloak, the fabric billowing around his as he stood. "I don't care, we keep moving forward."
Unbothered by the sun burning his fur, he pushed on, his tracks in the sand quickly covered by the wind.
The kittens groaned, collapsed against each other in the miniscule shade of a rock spire. Leppria looked at them, contemplating their place among the group as well as her own.
Perhaps it would be better (and smarter) to leave. Take the twins and try to survive, maybe search for other survivors, because if they kept on as they were they would die at the hands of the wild before they ever found Mumm-Ra.
"Snyah…" a tired noise came from the king's snarf, dropped in a pile of fat and fur on the ground. The leopard was honestly surprised the pet had made it this far, snarfs weren't exactly known for their endurance and charisma.
His oversized ears suddenly flicked, standing upright at attention as he fixated on something just ahead of him. Kit and Kat must have spotted something as well as they crouched beside the fluffy pet, their matching amber eyes blown wide.
"What's that?!" the boy mewed.
Lion-O backtracked immediately, fixing his eyes in the direction the kittens were facing. Snarf meowed excitedly as the group came face to face with what they had been searching for for weeks.
"Snarf just found the Sand Sea." The king breathed. "Mumm-Ra's lair must be just on the other side."
Leppria almost wanted to cry; wandering around in the wilderness without any sense of destination was getting maddening, and while the Sand Sea wasn't really a welcomed sight (considering it marked how close they were to Mumm-Ra and the lizard army) it was better than nothing.
In fact, it was actually kind of pretty, the way the dunes of sand pulsed and moved in the constant winds like waves in the ocean, and it was enormous, the lapping grains stretching out far beyond the horizon.
"It seems so far…" she muttered aloud. None of this was anything like her desk in the forge; her chaotic little bubble full of tech and tools, now replaced by shifting sand and cats she barely knew.
Cheetara materialized beside her. "It's the world. Bigger than you were expecting?" her ruby-colored lips formed a smile.
So much bigger. Her dust-brown bangs tickled the side of her face as she gave the cheetah a crooked smile, "Sort of…"
Making his way to the shore, Prince Tygra scanned the horizon, searching for a break in the sea or possible thinking how to get across in one piece. "I don't see anyway around it." He hummed, his brow furrowing over his black stripes.
As much as that put a thorn in her paw, Leppria resigned herself to the inevitability of more walking, or in this case, attempting to swim in sand. She almost groaned just thinking about it, physical activities were not her strong suit.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Kat pushed his way between her and Cheetara, eyes widening, "I know what I see!"
His sister was hot on his tail, the pair of them almost squishing themselves between the legs of the older cats. Kit's face lit up like a festival fire, throwing her arm out and pointing to something that honestly made everyone regain their energy.
"Food!"
Feeling particularly ravenous towards the array of fruit and seasoned meat floating casually in the shallows, they attacked it rabidly, no different than their four-legged ancestors as their hunger outweighed logic and reason completely.
Leppria shoved an entire leg of roasted sand-crawler into her mouth, barely chewing it as her stomach practically cried out in ecstasy. She had discarded the bones and was happily munching on an apple when Cheetara perked her ears forward.
"Hey, anyone else wondering where this came from?"
The leopard honestly wasn't thinking about it, until the cheetah had said something. A drop of apple juice fell from the fur around her lips as she contemplated the freshness of the fruit and the still-hot meat just randomly floating along.
No one had the opportunity to wonder for very long, as the sound of tightening ropes flooded their ears before the ground disappeared out from under them. Flashes of fur and sand were all Leppria was able to see as she was suddenly crushed under the weight of five other cats, rope and splintery wood rubbing harshly against her face.
She hissed as she tried to wiggle out, finding herself trapped beneath two squirming kittens and the full bulk of Prince Lion-O… again. She had hardly had a full conversation with him and she'd already found herself pinned beneath him for the third time.
"Quite the catch, I'd say!" an unfamiliar voice chortled.
Leppria's emerald eyes managed to focus on the webbed feet and finned legs of their captor, his white and orange scales blazing in the sun as he grinned down at them with a mouth full of sharpened yellow teeth.
He was some kind of fish… man?
More creatures like him of varying colors surrounded their pile of limbs and hair, all of them staring at the cats with looks of curiosity and, more worryingly, hunger. Panic filled her stomach as she and every cat on top of her struggled, not liking the glint of the fishmen's swords in the light as they drew closer to their trapped prey.
"What's all that racket?!"
The fishmen all froze. Their savior walked towards them on a mechanical leg, air inflating and deflating from bellows to keep him upright, and Leppria's pupils expanded in involuntary delight at the sight of it.
"That better be the Ramlak you spineless jellyfish are carryin' on about!" he growled, his voice scratchy like his throat was full of sand. He was different from the others above them, his scales murkier like he was older, and his left eye sealed permanently shut by a jagged, ugly scar.
He regarded them with narrowed eyes and the curl of a snarl on his fat lips, spitting off to the side.
"Another worthless haul," he hissed, Leppria pulling her attention away from his pegleg. "Take whatever the crew doesn't eat of em, and turn em into chum!"
Her blue eye twitched, the fishmen all bursting into jovial laughter while hopelessness settled into the imprisoned Thundercats.
Prince Lion-O growled, the sound rumbling and vibrating against her back.
"Whiskers…"
After a brief scuffle after the fishmen cut them from the net, the cats lashing out with claws and teeth before being quickly subdued again, they now sat tied together as the one-legged carp looked down at them smugly.
Leppria scanned each of their captors from her spot between Cheetara and Lion-O, most of them clutching spearguns close to their bodies, the leopard eyeing one of them. The harpoon was sharp and barbed, and if she could get one maybe she could cut the ropes and give them a chance to get free…
She flinched when a finned finger swiped something at the corner of her mouth, a drop of apple juice still clinging to her fur. The fish rubbed the drop between his fins before snarling, unfazed by the glare Lion-O was giving him. "That bait was meant for the beast,"
If she could give the food back she would, anything to get out of here and never have to learn what beast he was talking about.
The lion beside her straitened, trying to appear taller than he was from his position on the floor. "I am Lion-O, lord of the Thundercats, and I order you to release us!"
His demand was met with roaring laughter, "Oh?" the one-legged fish grinned, teeth sharper than the harpoon on his belt. "It talks! And it's still got some fight in it! Well, Lion-O, lord of the Thundercats, I am Koinelius Tunar: Captain of this ship! And I order you… filleted."
Cheetara growled beside her, softer than the king's yet somehow even more ferocious, and Leppria glared harshly at the fishmen that were eyeing the two women in a way she did not appreciate. She didn't feel like getting eaten today, thank you very much!
The leery water-breather smirked, his nose-rings glinting as he reached for a pair of knives belted to his hips, his fatness and the mocking upturn of his lips reminding her too much of Cougra. He trilled, "Let's start with the little ones; their meat will be the most deliciously tender…"
When he reached for the kittens the harpoon gun on his belt was only inches from Leppria's face, so she swallowed her disgust and sunk her teeth into his arm, salt permeating her mouth as he quickly pushed her off with a screech.
That was the second time she had to bite something trying to kill her, and she had to say she was not a fan, spitting the taste of the fishman from her mouth with a look of pure disgust etched onto her spotted face, but at least she got what she wanted.
The knife held by the fin she bit had dropped to the ground, the freckled Thundercat grabbing it between her toes before sliding it towards Cheetara. The cheetah tucked it under herself and gave the younger girl a firm nod, the fishmen none the wiser.
It wasn't exactly a harpoon gun, but it was sharp enough to cut their binds.
The fishman flexed his fingers before sneering down at her, twirling his other knife and preparing to lunge for her, when the entire ship lurched to the side, throwing everyone off of their feet into a pile of scales and false appendages.
The wood beneath them creaked and strained violently, as if it was fighting to not be split in pieces, and while the fishmen tried and fail to regain their bearings, Leppria watched as a long slimy tentacle slithered out from the sand.
Firmly not wanting to find out what it was attached to, she turned to the woman beside her, Cheetara taking full advantage of the chaos and using the knife to begin cutting the Thundercats free.
Screaming suddenly filled her ears as more tentacles rose high above the ship, grabbing onto stray legs and wrapping around bodies as one by one the fishmen were pulled into the depths of the Sand Sea, their terrified cries quickly swallowed by the golden waves.
"Ramlak…" Tunar purred, joy flooding his single eye. "At long last… my wretched quarry returns!"
Whether he was distracted by the monster or he just didn't care, he turned away from the bound cats and made his way to the bow of the ship, Leppria giving Cheetara a pleading look. "Maybe hurry up on those ropes?" she whimpered.
Whoever wasn't snatched by the monster quickly fired harpoons into its tentacles, ungodly screeches bellowing from its mouth as the fishmen tried to anchor its many arms, a few of them being grabbed and thrown overboard in the process.
The golden cat continued sawing through the ropes, while Leppria fixed her green eyes on a harpoon gun that had slid across the deck, probably dropped by its owner as they were grabbed. She gulped, knowing that once there were no more fishmen the monster would move on to them, and Leppria had not come this far to be breakfast!
"Come on you filthy maggots!" the captain roared. "This is the moment we've waited for! Fight!"
The leopard reached out with her foot, but the gun was too far away, and the tentacles were slowly creeping closer, like it was feeling for something else to grab and crush in its grasp. She stretched out more, reaching with all her might for the weapon but barely grazing it with the claw on her toe.
She nearly screamed when she felt the disgustingly cold skin of a tentacle on her leg, but rejoiced immediately at the sound of the ropes around her snapping loudly.
The moment Cheetara had cut their binds the Thundercats scattered in every direction, Leppria making a dive for the harpoon gun just as the monster realized their presence and tried to wrap her in its massive hold.
She felt the metal of the trigger beneath her claw and fired, the spear stabbing deep into the limb that would have surely dragged her beneath the sea. The monster screeched again, lashing out in a flurry of tentacles as the wood beneath their feet splintered and broke.
Now free to see the full extent of the chaos around her, Leppria spotted Lion-O as a tentacle constricted around him, the king shouting out angrily as he reached for the Sword of Omens on his belt only to be further squeezed by the beast like a mouse being crushed by a snake.
She watched frozen as Prince Tygra and Cheetara were also grabbed, lifted high and rendered helpless in the creature's slimy grip. A growl escaped her as she aimed her newly acquired weapon at the appendage holding Lion-O, preparing to slice the monster to ribbons when the deck disappeared from under her.
A tentacle as sneakily wrapped itself around her wrist and ripped her off the ground, coiling further around her arms and body as the harpoon gun fell from her hands. Her only defense lying useless on the deck mere feet away.
Fuzz, this is not how she wanted to go! Hot tears burned in her eyes as the monster began to squeeze the life out of her, tightening and wringing the very breath from her lungs, the pained grunts and cries of her fellow cats giving signal that they were trapped in similar conditions.
As she dangled there contemplating her death for the second time in the span of a week, Lion-O roared loud enough to ignite static to dance across her fur.
"Thundercats, ho!"
She opened her eyes and saw as the Sword of Omens exploded in furious red light, and for the first time since the fall of Thundera, Leppria felt strong enough to fight again.
It felt like a fire had been lit inside her belly, and a feral growl rumbled past her lips as she fixed her gaze on the tentacle around her body.
She was not dying today.
Yay! Another chapter! Something I noticed while designing Leppria is that she looks a bit like Lynxana from the original series, with yellow/tan fur, tons of spots, and brown hair in a high ponytail. The two have more differences than similarities but I thought it was kinda funny, anyway, I wanted to say that since this will be a Lion-O x OC story I wanted to stress that Leppria isn't the type of person to realize she's developing feelings for someone until it literally punches her in the face, so while she will eventually fall for Lion-O she won't be jealous of Cheetara or Pumyra in that regard, partially because she's a bit dumb when it comes to social interactions and partially because I am too in love with those characters to write any negative feelings about them, but I wouldn't worry about it because lovey-dovey stuff between Leppria and Lion-O won't be here for a while. See you next time! Ciao!